City, Suburban Pupils Find Common Ground

GRANBY — Moments after a Hartford fourth-grader and a Granby seventh-grader met at the Holcomb Farm Tuesday morning, the younger girl offered the older girl a Tootsie Roll.

Kerri Cowles, 12, of Granby, accepted the candy, and soon she and 9-year-old Jessica Cora of Hartford were exchanging stories about their families. Before the day was over, the two had talked about nail polish, held hands and hugged.

The two were part of a group of about 340 students from Granby Memorial Middle School and Thomas J. McDonough/Moylan Elementary School in Hartford who teamed up for a day of exploring the farm and getting acquainted. Each seventh-grader from Granby was paired with a third- or fourth-grader from the city.

The day was the first of three trips each child will have to the farm throughout this school year. The program, which was funded through a $15,000 grant from the state Department of Education, is in its first year.

The goal of Tuesday's trip was to help students get to know each other and break down stereotypes, teachers said. Most of the Hartford students are Puerto Rican and a few are African American. Most of Granby's students are white.

The day also gave students an overall look at the farm's animals, gardens, learning center and, through a slide show, its woods. Teachers will use the farm experiences to discuss the changing seasons throughout the school year.

``I want to increase their comfort level of being at Holcomb Farm,'' said Kathy Perillo, director of the farm's environmental learning center. ``I want to inspire them for their seasonal visit.'' For the seasonal visits, the students will be split into two groups, with some visiting the farm in the fall and others in the winter. All the students will then return to the farm together in the spring.

As she waited to board her bus, Kerri, of Old Stagecoach Road in Granby, said she was surprised at how open the Hartford students were. ``I really had fun with the Hartford kids,'' she said. ``They're just as nice as if you knew them your whole life.''

Her classmate, Jennie Orszulak, 12, of Fielding Woods in Granby, said she did not expect to have so much in common with the Hartford children.

For Jessica, of Park Terrace in Hartford, the trip gave her the chance to see animals up close that she had seen only in movies. ``I got to talk to the chickens,'' she said. She also noticed that the farm ``had lots of grass that they need to cut.''

Her friend, Amanda Rivera, 9, of Wilson Street in Hartford, said the only time she left the city was ``to go to stores.''

Local students discovered that things they took for granted were new experiences for some of the Hartford students. After Jessica had picked some wild berries, Kerri quickly reached out and stopped her from eating them. When Jessica wondered aloud about a pile of discarded vegetables, Kerri told her it was a compost pile.

``My partner was like, `Wow!' when she saw the river,'' Jennie said. She enjoyed being able to teach her partner about plants, saying ``it made me feel kind of grown up because I was able to teach them.''